New to e-sports? The 10 best Starcraft 2 matches to watch now

4. Kiwikaki vs Machine

Protoss vs Zerg

Xelnaga Caverns

Cast by: scReddit

Kiwikaki is a brilliant Protoss player who, in this video, demonstrates exactly why. We've been careful not to spoil the results of any other games, but this is here for one reason: an exquisite and totally gangsta combination of Blink Stalkers and Mothership that eviscerates his Zerg opponent.

The commentators don't get particularly excited as it happens, but this is a brilliant and singular play. Machine is no slouch (see here ), but what could anyone do against this awesome madness?

5. Nada vs 'Hitler'

Terran Vs Terran

Metalopolis

Cast by: diggitySC

Who is the mysterious Hitler? Nobody knows. This replay from battle.net turned up a couple of months ago featuring this masterful enigma facing off against Nada . Now he's a different story: Nada's known as the Genius Terran, and is statistically the greatest Brood War player of all time. He's not bad at Starcraft II either, having made two GSL quarter finals thus far.

The game is a classic TvT tank war, which can often result in standoffs – but here, both players are far more aggressive and mobile with their siege lines, pushing and pulling their armies around for the whole game. This is cat-and-mouse with several tonnes of military hardware, a mindgame as much as a territorial war, and the final resting place for an awful lot of marines.

6. Boxer vs Fruitdealer

Terran vs Zerg

Metalopolis

Cast by: HDStarcraft

This is an oldie but a goodie. Boxer isn't a Starcraft legend: he's the legend. Known as The Emperor, Boxer exploded onto the original Starcraft scene in 1999 at a time when Terran were rarely played competitively, and guess what happened next. Boxer has played at the highest level of Starcraft since, excepting a few years of compulsory military service, recently changing over to Starcraft II, and is currently Code S in the GSL.

Fruitdealer ? Ex-Brood War player, the champion of GSL's very first season, an incredibly imaginative and aggressive opponent, and undoubtedly one of the greatest Zerg players Starcraft II has yet seen. This is a showmatch from Blizzcon 2010 just after that first GSL season because... well. Everyone loves a bit of old school versus new school, don't they? HD's a incisive guide through a game that's a cracker, with both players constantly being forced to act and react until one makes too many mistakes.

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."